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Cutting Steel With Flaming Bacon Weapons 73

Ed Pegg writes "Theo Gray demonstrates the Bacon Lance, a flaming meatsword that can cut through steel. Yes, with some ordinary bacon, and some pure oxygen, it's possible to cut through security doors. Form the article, 'I recently committed myself to the goal, before the weekend was out, of creating a device entirely from bacon and using it to cut a steel pan in half. My initial attempts were failures, but I knew success was within reach when I was able to ignite and melt the pan using seven beef sticks and a cucumber.' This comes out right after his profusely illustrated book of science experiments, Mad Science."

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Cutting Steel With Flaming Bacon Weapons

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  • Reminds me... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ExploHD ( 888637 ) on Thursday April 16, 2009 @07:30PM (#27605161)
    Around the time Attack of the Clones, Wienerschnitzel cashed in with their own light saber type toy called a Wiener Saber... It was an off red color, almost pink...
  • Theodore Gray (Score:5, Informative)

    by Zouden ( 232738 ) on Thursday April 16, 2009 @07:30PM (#27605163)

    Is also known as the guy who made a periodic table table [theodoregray.com] (for which he was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize).

  • I don't know (Score:2, Interesting)

    by guruevi ( 827432 )

    Is it me or does that picture look like a melted 'pleasure device' on fire?

  • Um... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ectotherm ( 842918 ) on Thursday April 16, 2009 @07:33PM (#27605199)
    Is this one of those Government "Pork Projects" I keep reading about? ;-)
  • by gyrogeerloose ( 849181 ) on Thursday April 16, 2009 @07:50PM (#27605337) Journal

    It's ham. But I still have to wonder if the expensive imported varieties make a better thermal lance than the cheap, domestic product

    • OP:

      Prosciutto is not bacon

      TFA:

      prosciutto (Italian for "expensive bacon")

      • by Eskarel ( 565631 ) on Thursday April 16, 2009 @10:41PM (#27606869)

        And TFA is wrong.

        Prosciutto is an expensive salt cured ham. You do not need to cook it. Even if it came from the same part of the pig and was otherwise identical to bacon(which it isn't) the salt curing would be more than enough to make it different. It's chemically different than regular(or even canadian) bacon and at the least contains a whole heck of a lot of salt which regular bacon does not.

  • Well, the potential's always there...

  • A bacon sword is one thing. A bacon AK-47 [thisisfrea...culous.com] is another.
  • by pete-classic ( 75983 ) <hutnick@gmail.com> on Thursday April 16, 2009 @07:58PM (#27605421) Homepage Journal

    Dear Ed,

    However many times you considered and reconsidered using the world "meatsword" in your summary, double it next time. Unless it was fewer than three, in which case, double that.

    This guideline clearly doesn't apply if you're writing slash fiction. (Which, I might add, might be a fine way for you to channel this sort of thing in the future.)

    Other than that, I think you should follow this guideline.

    Thanks,
    Peter

  • this adds new meaning to the old adage "bringing home the bacon"...in this case...a tool for cutting/welding steel

  • I never buy light.

  • PORKSWORD!!!!!!


    yea go ahead and mod me down, i deserve it.

    but it was worth it.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by Cyberax ( 705495 )

      You don't get it - the bacon itself is the fuel for the lance.

      • Nar, the bacon's really just the delicious pilot light. The oxygen itself does all the work.
        • by Cyberax ( 705495 )

          Nope. Oxygen does not burn, it can't generate heat by itself and you can't cut steel with pure oxygen.

          Bacon provides hydrocarbons which burn in the pure oxygen.

          • Re:also known as (Score:4, Informative)

            by fluffy99 ( 870997 ) on Thursday April 16, 2009 @11:25PM (#27607201)

            Actually you can cut steel with pure oxygen - its called a cutting torch. With a cutting torch the flame is only there to get the metal up to the ignition point, after which the metal itself burns in the stream of oxygen. Once you get a cutting torch going and a cut started, you can actually turn off the actylene and continue with just the oxygen jet going.

            In the first video when you see the sparks flying, thats the metal buring in the oxygen rich flow.

            • Comment removed based on user account deletion
              • But as a lance, it's pretty ineffective. He's just got an oxy-bacon torch instead of an oxyacetylene torch. He's just eventually melting through the metal, or gets it hot enough for the excess oxygen to burn the metal. A true lance is throwing much hotter flame on the order of 7000-8000 degrees.
            • Re:also known as (Score:4, Informative)

              by LoRdTAW ( 99712 ) on Friday April 17, 2009 @08:03PM (#27622067)

              Parent is correct. I had an oxy-propane torch for cutting and the torch handle has two mixing valves and then a trigger lever. You adjust the mixing valves to get a nice hot flame and then start to heat the metal. once it gets to the point where it begins to get yellow hot and starts to melt you squeeze the lever and out come a stream of oxygen. Then you start seeing sparks fly! At that point the flame isn't doing any cutting, the oxygen is.

              The "bacon" lance is a thermal lance that is made of meat. A real thermal lance is easy to make.You take a 1/2 piece of steel pipe, pack it full of thin steel rods and just connect a valve to one end that is hooked to an oxygen tank. You light it with a cutting torch and it works like the torch, only it does not have its own gaseous fuel source but instead burns the steel. They can punch holes through concrete and slice steel I beams like a hot knife through butter. As the lance burns it gets shorter, that is why some are upward of eight to ten feet long. If you ever get to see a bridge or overpass demolished you will see thermal lances used to cut the beams and anchors.

  • Making bacon cut through iron... what is better than that?
  • I object, this device is clearly not made "entirely from bacon." >:(
  • Your mom totally digs my meatsword.

    It's actually more of a meatclaymore, but let's not get bogged down in the details.
  • by Minwee ( 522556 ) <dcr@neverwhen.org> on Thursday April 16, 2009 @09:55PM (#27606533) Homepage

    Ahh, the bacon laser sword. The chosen weapon of the Cheddar Monks.

    An elegant weapon, from a more civilized age.

    • by voss ( 52565 )

      A mod point, a mod point..a 2 year old cheddar for a mod point!

    • by rdwulfe ( 890032 )

      Ahh, the bacon laser sword. The chosen weapon of the Cheddar Monks.

      An elegant weapon, from a more civilized age.

      Hmn. Wouldn't it being the weapon of Cheddar monks make it from a more 'cultivated' age?

  • Oblig (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 16, 2009 @10:09PM (#27606647)

    In Soviet Russia, bacon fry pan!

  • Kindom of Loathing (Score:2, Informative)

    by Dracil ( 732975 )

    Sounds like a weapon right out of that game. And if not, I can imagine them adding it in after this.

  • I just read the book, It is unbelievable. My favorite mad science story from theo's book is about the fastest way to heat a hot tub. The book is full of fantastic pictures made by the author. Most experiments generate intense metal melting heat. This book is hot!
  • Not Kosher!.

    (can't believe I'm the first to say it)
  • by DynaSoar ( 714234 ) on Friday April 17, 2009 @06:12AM (#27609029) Journal

    Mythbusters confirmed (episodes 51 and 64) a story about using salami http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(season_4)#Salami_Rocket [wikipedia.org] as fuel in a hybrid rocket motor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_rocket [wikipedia.org] , with nitrous oxide as an oxidizer. Their contention was that it was or could have been done in the US civil war. It was done in fact by an amateur rocketer. Oxidizing hydrocarbons produces energy, whether it's kerosene/LOX (a common combination since the V2) or lipids/Nox.

  • *Wakes up, brushes teeth*

    *Makes coffee*

    *Check Slashdot, reads about steel-cutting bacon swords*

    I see. Apparently I did not, in fact, adequately complete the first step in my regular morning routine. That is, waking up.
  • In some class during my first year at the university, the professor used to cut through metal with a cigar (that had been dipped in liquid oxygen).

    Way cooler, since it also involved cryogenic liquids.

Love may laugh at locksmiths, but he has a profound respect for money bags. -- Sidney Paternoster, "The Folly of the Wise"

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